Autoelectro’s Nick Hood delivers monthly column
Published: 25 January, 2018
Autoelectro’s UK sales manager Nick Hood is now communicating directly with customers via a brand new monthly column, ‘Nick Says.’
Subscribers to Autolectro’s bulletins will automatically receive the new e-shot, which looks at industry hot topics, as well as key developments from the company’s Bradford remanufacturing facility.
In his first column, Nick asked: “What’s the real price of old core?”
He also took a trip down memory lane, as he revisited some crucial moments throughout 2017, illustrated some key range introductions and how Autoelectro has embraced new technologies. He also revealed his thoughts about what he and the automotive aftermarket can expect throughout the next 12 months.
If readers have any questions that they would like to ask Nick, they are encouraged to send them to him directly – at sales@autoelectro.co.uk with ‘Nick Says’ in the subject header – and he will choose the best of them to answer in forthcoming columns, which will be delivered straight to their inbox.
Anyone not already registered with Autoelectro that is interested in receiving this free monthly supplement should email sales@autoelectro.co.uk
- Part one: Succeeding with succession
According to the Institute for Family Business (IFB), two thirds – 4.7m in total of UK businesses are family owned. Crucially, the IFB believes that around 100,000 of these firms change hands each year.
- Don’t join the gold rush, sell shovels
Futurologists have predicted it for years, but now, it’s actually starting to happen. The impact of the sharing economy on the automotive industry has upended the status quo and companies are scrambling to gain first-mover advantage within a radically reconfigured marketplace.
In the US, in March 2018 alone, an Ohio dealership launched a monthly subscription package that allows customers to switch between different brands of luxury cars, and GM announced a plan to allow their customers to rent their cars directly to each other. Meanwhile, ride-hailing is rapidly taking share from traditional car rental in Certify customers’ business travel expenses.
In the UK, a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) App called Whim is in trial in the Midlands, offering unlimited public transport, hire cars and short taxi rides for a fixed monthly payment of £440. Meanwhile, personal contract purchase (PCP) deals – essentially car rental, with the option to pay off the rest of the car’s value after three years – have already become the preferred method of new vehicle purchase.
The problem is that hundreds of companies in the automotive world have set their sights on the same goal: To be the go-to choice for consumers. That’s fine if you have billions to invest in marketing, but if you’re not at the level of Ford, Uber or Google, that fight is going to get ugly. Rental agencies, dealerships, and business leasing providers – all of whom are used to owning customer relationships in the pre-mobility world – are among those who are going to be out-gunned.
The good news is that there are two clear ways for businesses to thrive in this new marketplace in a way that won’t be disrupted by technological advances. Both strategies involve selling to businesses rather than consumers, which means they can deliver sustainably higher margins without requiring a huge spend on marketing and customer acquisition.
Strategy one: Sell a service to the dominant platforms
The most obvious low-risk, high-reward model is to provide an indispensable service to enable the mobility being sold by others. This would involve contracting with whatever mobility platforms dominate, be it Ford, Uber or Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit. A business might decide to become the leading company that deliver services around.
